Adults at average risk for colorectal cancer can reduce the likelihood of receiving a diagnosis of late-stage disease by 70% by undergoing screening colonoscopy, according to the results of a case-control study published yesterday in Annals of Internal Medicine.

This decrease in risk was also seen for right colon cancer (OR=0.36; 95% CI, 0.16-0.80), where evidence of the effectiveness of colonoscopy has been limited.

A second study published in Annals found that patients who received electronic health record–linked automated reminders to undergo colorectal cancer screening were twice as likely to be up-to-date on screening as patients who were given usual care (56.8% vs 26.3%; P<.001). In this study, automated reminders included letters, pamphlets, and fecal occult blood tests mailed to participants.

Additional support—such as a follow-up phone call or nurse navigation—when added to automated reminders, increased the number of patients who were up-to-date on screening compared with automated methods alone.

An abstract of the colorectal screening study can be found here and an abstract for the electronic health record study can be found here.

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